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Over the past few years, several members of the Democratic Party have led movements calling for police defunding, a movement that proved unpopular and from which they later tried to disassociate themselves, despite countless statements by Democratic supporters claiming they wanted to take away police budgets, and the elimination of budgets in progressive jurisdictions such as New York.
Yet, the Biden administration is dedicating American taxpayer resources to fund police in other nations. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland announced Tuesday in Bogotá an $8 million grant to the Colombian National Police to strengthen “respect for human rights” within the institution.
As part of her trip to Colombia, Nuland met with the Director-General of the National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, with whom she announced in a press conference the donation, which is a sign of the “support of the White House to the modernization process” of the Colombian security forces.
Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the United States and Colombia, the U.S. Under Secretary indicated that with this announcement the United States supports the “work of protection of human rights” that the Colombian Police is promoting.
The donation, which will come through the Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section (INL), will seek to promote within the institution “accountability of those who violate human rights, investigate abuses, as well as the prosecution of corruption” in order to “strengthen Colombian and American democracy and protect all citizens.”
“A clean, honest and strong police force is what all our citizens want and deserve,” added Nuland, who also congratulated the institution “for all its work.”
For his part, Vargas assured that the eight million dollars will be used to generate the necessary certifications and changes so that all police officers in Colombia have, as a first place of action, respect for human rights.
The United States will also support the Colombian Police by participating in the design and implementation of the Police Standards Center, which will test and validate the competencies of uniformed officers.
